equilibrium

Examples of equilibrium in the following topics:

• Market-Oriented Theories

  • When the supply of a product exactly meets the demand for it, the price reaches a state of equilibrium and no longer fluctuates.
  • Considering inequality, market-oriented theories claim that if left to the free-market, all products and services will reach equilibrium, and price stability will reduce inequality.
  • Generally, market-oriented theories hold that when supply of labor and goods meets demand, the economic order will reach equilibrium, and inequality will either be non-existent or will be stable.

• Conflict Theory

  • Conflict theory argues that society is not best understood as a complex system striving for equilibrium but rather as a competition.
  • The structural-functionalist approach argued that society tends toward equilibrium, focusing on stability at the expense of social change.
  • Structural-functionalism focuses on equilibrium and solidarity; conflict-theory focuses on change and conflict.

• The Functionalist Perspective

  • From this perspective, societies are seen as coherent, bounded, and fundamentally relational constructs that function like organisms, with their various parts (such as race) working together in an unconscious, quasi-automatic fashion toward achieving an overall social equilibrium.
  • Given this emphasis on equilibrium and harmony, the functionalist perspective easily allows for specific macro-analyses of more contentious power imbalances, such as race-related issues.

• Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft

  • The equilibrium in Gemeinschaft is achieved through morals, conformism, and exclusion (social control), while Gesellschaft keeps its equilibrium through police, laws, tribunals and prisons.

• The Functionalist Perspective

  • ., the educational system), thus bringing social life back into equilibrium.
  • The various parts of society are assumed to work together naturally and automatically to maintain overall social equilibrium.
  • Critics also argue that functionalism is unable to explain social change because it focuses so intently on social order and equilibrium in society.

• Structural-Functionalism

  • The various parts of society are assumed to work in an unconscious, quasi-automatic fashion towards the maintenance of the overall social equilibrium.
  • Structural-functionalism has been criticized for being unable to account for social change because it focuses so intently on social order and equilibrium in society.
  • Thus, as one aspect of society changed - the economy and production - it required a comparable change in the educational system, bringing social life back into equilibrium.

• Activity Theory

  • Activity theory reflects the functionalist perspective that the equilibrium, that an individual develops in middle age, should be maintained in later years.

• Summary

  • But, real world social networks are often quite messy, may not be fully realized (that is, not in equilibrium), and/or may be badly measured.

• Aging in the US

  • In short, as populations in specific locations age, the entire social structure must change to accommodate the new demographic, which supports the notion of equilibrium in structural-functionalist theory.

• School

  • Structural functionalists believe that society leans towards social equilibrium and social order.